UN: Syrian Rebels are Responsible for Using Chemical Weapons

As the U.S. steps up aid to Syrian rebels and Israel has begun preemptively bombing Syria because they claim the Assad regime is using chemical weapons in the conflict, a United Nations investigation has revealed just the opposite.

The rebels are the ones responsible for using sarin gas and other chemical weapons, according to testimony given to medical staff and human rights workers.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

“This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added, speaking in Italian.

The Obama Administration is continually expressing outrage at the Syrian government over what they call “varying degrees of confidence” that Assad used chemical weapons in the conflict. The Administration made these charges with no viable evidence or reliable intelligence.

While the West tries to imply that the Assad regime is guilty of war crimes based on rumor, Israel’s unprovoked strike against Syria is a clear international crime in direct violation of international law. Shall we add the use of chemical weapons by the allied Syrian rebels to the list of war crimes?